Stocks mentioned in this article: AAPL , CVS , ERIC , FCAU , FIT , NFLX , SHLD , SNE , TWTR , WFM , WMT , YHOO , COST

Not many companies can claim a substantial edge to Apple (ticker: AAPL ) in the digital consumer products realm – except, perhaps, for Fitbit ( FIT ), which got into the wearable tech game in 2007, well before anyone. And while the Apple Watch foundered on the sidelines, Fitbit's pantheon of products – which track data including steps walked, sleep quality and heart rate – helped the company go public in June 2015.

And then 2016 came – and this one-time stock to watch saw its watch stop.

So far this year, FIT has tumbled 48 percent, and is down more than two thirds from its peak just a year ago. With its stock trading in a trough at less than $16 per share, Fitbit now must ask itself what, if anything, it can do to live up to its product named the Surge.

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Fitbit marks a textbook case of a company at the crossroads – the kind that, despite its technical innovation and marketplace domination, fails to convert those bona fides into boisterous profits. It's a moment of truth many businesses face, and how they regroup and react speaks volumes about their long-term prospects.

"The challenge of pivoting is not unique to Fitbit," says marketer Randal C. Moss, co-author of "IGNITE: Setting Your Organization's Culture on Fire With Innovation."

When companies hit that defining moment, "they have to radically change quickly, they have to pivot," Moss says. "They must look at their assets, core value and then reimagine the business model. Sometimes pivots work – like CVS ( CVS ) reimagining itself and moving from a drug store to a health store. And sometimes pivots fail, such as Netflix ( NFLX ) launching Quickster."

One example of a company running up against consumer fatigue is Whole Foods Market ( WFM ). Trading at $30 per share, WFM stock is down almost 50 percent from February 2015, a scenario where shareholders would gladly trade places with shoppers. This is, after all, the organic supermarket chain often derided as "Whole Paycheck."

And in turn, Whole Foods has been hurt – badly – by competition from outlets selling similar items with much lower prices, from Trader Joe's to Costco Wholesale Corp. ( COST ). Even decidedly non-tony places such as Wal-Mart Stores ( WMT ) have gotten into the organic act.

Whole Foods' challenge is to reinvent itself after inventing its market niche, says Keith Daniels, partner and restructuring advisory expert with Carl Marks Advisors, headquartered in New York.

"Whole Foods at one time pioneered and then dominated the organic industry and now is experiencing headwinds as organic has gone mainstream," Daniels says. But after growing at an average of 8 percent annually just a few years ago, "Whole Foods is now seeing decreases in same store sales."

The slump isn't just about prices, either. Trader Joe's, for example has won over many millennials with its kitschy, nautical atmosphere and chatty, helpful staff.

As a response, "Whole Foods is now rolling out their '365 by Whole Foods' concept, which is targeted at the more value-conscious consumer," Daniels says. It's not just smaller, "but also more of an experience rather than just a place to buy groceries."

Whole Foods is taking a risk by borrowing, to an extent, from the Trader Joe's playbook rather than creating something new to grab shoppers by the lapels. But for many companies trying to skate past the crisis marker, getting on stable footing takes precedence over market (or supermarket) disruption.

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A critical way to get that process started, experts contend, is not so much for companies to look at the competition outside, but the leadership inside.

"Good management understands what caused the crises, identifies the best way forward and focuses on executing the turnaround plan," says Andrew Lobo, vice president of talent strategy at Talent Growth Advisors.

"This is Twitter's ( TWTR ) issue," Lobo says. "Management cannot figure out real growth options or ways to monetize its platform." Result: Twitter has frittered away a third of its share price over the last 12 months; it now trades just above $18 per share.

Yet the companies confronted by a fork in the road in 2016 aren't unique: In fact, it's potentially going to happen to every public company at some point at least once – or more. See: A struggling Apple inviting Steve Jobs back onto its board in 1997, and struggling to recover its mojo as an innovator after Jobs' passing in 2011.

"These crises are predictable," says Chris Zook, co-head of global strategy at Bain & Co. and author of "The Founder's Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth."

Citing Bain research, "85 percent of the reasons for failure – for hitting the skids – are traceable to deep internal root causes, not external phenomena like a saturated market, a competitor with a capability that cannot be matched, or economic market slowdown. We found this over and over in the research we did."

The No. 1 cause for a crisis, Zook says, is stall out. Looking at a 15-year period, "we find that about two-thirds of established companies will stall out totally in revenues and profits – as have companies like Ericsson ( ERIC ), or Sony ( SNE ), or Fiat-Chrysler ( FCAU ), or Sears ( SHLD ) or even younger companies like Yahoo ( YHOO ) and Twitter. "

Here's the unfortunate news for shareholders and management: Only about one in eight of those companies will regain their prior momentum.

"Stall out happens when organizations become complex and lose touch with what made them special in the first place," Zook says. "Or, they begin to defend the status quo as opposed to constantly pushing out the boundaries as a young insurgent, founder-led company typically does when the company is at its best."

That's true today at Apple, where in 1983 Jobs infamously said at a company retreat, "It's better to be a pirate than join the Navy." Soon after that remark, a homemade pirate flag was hoisted over Apple's headquarters – and stayed there for more than a year.

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In April, Apple flew a replica pirate flag as a tribute to Jobs' swashbuckling spirit. But for a company that hasn't spawned an exciting new product for some time, it seems more a token gesture of a well-heeled shipping magnate.

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